Nizar Rayan

Nizar Rayan (6 March 1959-1 January 2009) was a Palestinian was a clerical authority in Hamas who was a strong advocate of suicide attacks against Israel - his son was killed in a suicide attack against Israel. Rayan and his family were killed in an airstrike in 2009.

Biography
Nizar Rayan was born on 6 March 1959 in Jabalia, Gaza Strip, Palestine. He gained a bachelor of arts degree in religious principles in 1982 from Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Influenced by Wahhabism that was common in Saudi Arabia, Rayan became an important leader of Hamas and was opposed to Shia Islam. After the assassination of Ahmed Yassin in 2004, he became the top clerical authority of Hamas.

During the 2009 Operation Cast Lead Israel invasion of the Gaza Strip, he was targeted by the Israeli Air Force (IAF). On 31 December 2008, he declared that the only way that Palestinians could talk to Jews was through guns. The next day, an Israeli F-16 jet dropped a 2,000 pound bomb on his house, killing his 4 wives and 11 of their children. He was the most senior commander to die in battle with Israel since Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004, and Hamas said that Israel would pay a heavy toll for Rayan's death.